ENG 313: Milton
Fall 2002
Dr. Berglund
Criticism
Review (paper 2) and Long Essay (paper 3) on Paradise Lost
The final assignment is a
2,500-3,000 word essay on Paradise Lost. The paper must be informed by at least one work of literary
criticism and must include close readings of the poem. You may, but need not, use Areopagitica or
Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce to shape your analysis of Paradise
Lost.
I have broken the assignment down into the following steps.
1. Topic and thesis proposal, due Monday, 4 November, via email. This proposal is a short essay (250-300 words) in which you outline a topic and ask the questions that you hope your paper will answer. The proposal should identify the theme you wish to explore and the parts of the poem that you plan to analyze. The proposal will not be graded but if you do not hand it in, the grade on your final essay will be reduced by one-third of a level (e.g., from B to B-). I will respond to each proposal with suggestions for focusing the topic, for sections of the poem you might examine, and for secondary reading.
2. Criticism Review, due Wednesday, 13 November. I have placed on reserve 12 articles or chapters grouped under four broad topics: "Eve," "Milton as poet," "politics" and "God." Read all the criticism listed under one of these topics and then write a summary of the argument of two of the articles. Ideally, you should choose criticism related to your own proposed topic. You may either integrate your discussion of the two articles into a single essay or you may write about each article separately. Identify each critic's thesis and the ideas that strike you as most interesting. You may, of course, disagree with the conclusions reached in the article(s). Include one or two brief quotations from each article and analyze their meaning and importance. Finally, comment on what issues raised by the criticism you might explore further in your paper on Paradise Lost. This review or pair of reviews should run 1,000 - 1,500 words.
The goal of this assignment is to demonstrate your ability to read, understand and use secondary literature to support your own critical analyses. Grades for the criticism review will be based on a) the appropriateness of your choices for summary and quotation analysis; b) the accuracy of your summaries and analysis of quotations; c) the correctness and readability of your prose; and d) the promise of your ideas for further exploration.
I have written a model for a criticism review, which you should use to organize your own review.
3. Final Essay, due at our CEP meeting, Monday, 9 December, 3:40 p.m. This paper may incorporate material from your third paraphrase and from the criticism review. Your paper must use at least one secondary source, though it need not be one discussed in your criticism review. If you choose to read other critics, I advise you to begin by consulting Flannagan's bibliography and the anthologies of criticism already on reserve. There is a great mass of critical material on the Internet but not all of it is reliable.
Grades on the final paper will be based on 1) the originality, focus and persuasiveness of your thesis; 2) your insight into Milton's poetry and ideas; 3) your skill at close reading and incorporation of quotation analysis; 4) your ability to integrate criticism into your essay without letting the critics' ideas take over the paper; 5) the clarity of your prose; 6) your adherence to rules of grammar and mechanics; and 7) the accuracy of your citations, attributions, and bibliography.
During CEP you must give a five-minute presentation of your paper to the class. You may either read a short section of your essay, summarize its argument or both. Your grade will depend on how well you 1) convey your thesis; and 2) answer questions asked by the class.
Please note that I am always happy to read a draft of any paper; I return comments within 48 hours.
Politics:
Merritt Y. Hughes, Ten Perspectives on Milton. New Haven: Yale
UP, 1965. Chapter 7, "Satan and
the 'Myth' of the Tyrant"
Steven Jablonski, "'Freely We Serve': Paradise Lost and the Paradoxes of Personal Liberty." In Arenas of Conflict, ed. Kristin Pruitt McColgan and Charles W. Durham. London: Associated University Presses, 1997: 107-119.
Mary Ann Radzinowicz, "The Politics of Paradise Lost." In Politics of Discourse: The literature and History of Seventeenth-century England, ed. Kevin Sharpe and Steven N. Zwicker. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987: 204-229.
God:
Robert Crosman, Reading Paradise Lost. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980. Chapter 2, "Light Invisible"
William Empson, Milton's God. London: Chatto & Windus, 1961. Chapter 3, "Heaven" (Also recommended, Chapter 1, "Critics")
Geoffrey Hartman, "Milton's Counterplot" (1958). Reprinted in Milton: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Louis L. Martz. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1966: 100-108.
Milton as Poet:
*Janet Adelman, "Creation and the Place of the Poet in Paradise Lost." In The Author in His Work: Essays on a Problem in Criticism. Ed. Louis L. Martz and Aubrey Williams. New Haven: Yale UP, 1978: 51-70.
Anne Davidson Ferry, Milton's Epic Voice: The Narrator in Paradise Lost. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1963. Chapter 1, "Tone: The Bird and the Blind Bard."
Stanley E. Fish, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost. New York: MacMillan, 1967.
Chapter 5, "The Interpretative Choice"
Eve:
*Christine Froula, "When Eve Reads Milton: Undoing the Canonical Economy." Critical Inquiry 10 (1983): 321-47.
Diane McColley, "Eve and the Arts of Eden." In Milton and the Idea of Woman, ed. Julia M. Walker. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988: 100-119.
*James Grantham Turner, "Passion and Subordination." Excerpted from "Love Made in the First Age: Edenic Sexuality in Paradise Lost and its Analogues." One Flesh: Paradisal Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Age of Milton. Oxford UP, 1987.
*If a title is asterisked, it's a photocopy; otherwise the entire book is on reserve.